Tears: The Alternate Ending of Souls
by Lioner15
Summary: The final chapter of my epic tale has come! Alois, who has been rescued by yours truly, is now living with me, as well as Hannah! Of course, not everything is exactly great. You see, right before vacation, Alois decided it was a good idea to gut a boy's eye out. So, needless to say, we are running from the law. Oh, did I mention this was all on my birthday? 3rd book of series
1. Foreword

**Hello everyone! Thank you for clicking the link! You are either happy or like "What the heck is this." Well, let me tell you! **

**This is the second ending of a trilogy I have made. It follows Alois Trancy, the lovable blonde brat, and Nichole, a sarcastic OC who wants nothing more than to save him from Claude after watching season 2. If you are new to my little series (which in all honesty you probably are), I advise you to NOT read this story and instead start with the first fic in this little mini series thingy ma bob. **

**The link to the first story is here - s/10103773/1/Souls**

**After you are done reading that story, there are two paths you need to take. My other story, "Blood", is the continuation of "Souls"' ending, where Alois tries to -ENTERSPOLIERSHERE-. This story is an alternate version where Nichole and Alois get back to the present. **

**The link to "Blood" is here - s/10261109/1/Blood-The-Sequel-to-Souls**

**Hope I helped you all and enjoy the stories! The first chapter will be posted momentarily! **

**-Lioner15**


	2. Another Ending

"Maddie, you love wolves. What do we do to stop it from tearing Al's heart out of his chest?"

Maddie (the wolf expert) clenched her fists. "We need to draw it away from his blood. That wolf is an outcast from its pack, and smelled Alois's blood! Quick, make noise!"

We all started doing everything we could think of that would draw the wolf from him. Gabby yelled at it, Cate cursed at it, Maddie clapped her hands and tried making some weird call, while I tried to talk to Alois.

"You'll be okay! Don't worry!" I said, pleading with myself more than anything. "Don't worry, you'll be fine Alois!"

Alois just stared at the wolf, not moving. If I hadn't seen him blink, I would've thought he was dead.

"Girls, get behind me!"

All at once, my friends and I turned our heads to see Hannah. Blood was dripping from a large wound that gave me a clear view of the tree behind her. I'm pretty sure my face grew pale at the sight of all that blood and guts. It was like something out of one of those AMC shows.

"Hannah!" I exclaimed, unable to move away from Alois and that wolf. "Y-You're supposed to be fighting Grell, right? What happened to him?"

"He will not be bothering us, don't worry Nichole. Now if you excuse me…" Before I or my friends could say anything, Hannah demon-jumped over us (giving us a view of what's under her skirt in the process) to the nearly dead Alois Trancy and grabbed the wolf by its neck. The animal squirmed, but then let out a sharp and short YIP. The old demon-maid then dropped its lifeless corpse down onto the cold ground. I heard Maddie stifle a sob as it did.

"ALOIS!" I yelled before running as fast I could to him. Tears messed up my vison, but I could still see Alois's weak smile as I ran over and threw my arms around him. "Thank God you're okay…"

"Y-Yeah, I guess…" He replied weakly, his eyes focusing and un-focusing on me. That was definitely not a good sign, and I don't need a degree in human's studies to know that. "H-Help me…please…"

Quickly after, my friends and Hannah quickly flocked over to me like sheep. "W-We can heal you Alois, don't worry!" Gabby said, smiling at him. Maddie began unpacking the first-aid kit, and Catilin looked away from Alois and Hannah, her hand over her mouth. She couldn't stand blood.

"Yeah…Not sure about you though Hannah…" Maddie said, looking the demoness's gaping wound over with uncertainty.

"She'll be fine! She's a demon, she can live!" I said as I hurriedly took Alois's jacket and then his vest. The once pretty green vest was absolutely soaked and I hated touching the soiled thing. "Right now, we need to save Alois! We need to; we have to!" The tears from earlier began dripping down my face, but I just brushed them away in anger. Jeez tears, I'm kinda doing something important here, don't screw me up!

"You happy he doesn't have a shirt on, Nic?" Maddie asked as Alois's shirt was thrown into the pile of bloody-clothes-inc.

"Shut the *&)% up Maddie!" I practically screamed at her shrilly. It only took a moment for me to regret what I said, but as my pastor said once as he showed us a cow tongue (long story), you can never take words back. "S-Sorry…I'm just stressed right now…"

"It's okay…" Hannah said as she reached over and put her hand on my shoulder. "I know this must be quite a thing to handle… face me for a second please…"

Face her? But I need to bandage Alois up! We're losing precious time! "M-Make it quick!" I said as I spun around to meet her, my hand over Alois's wound.

"It shall be." The demoness stated, and put her other hand lightly on my lips. They felt…well, I won't describe it to you, it was kinda gross. "Now, let me expel you from this curse you've bestowed upon yourself…"

Instantly, a red hot burning feeling erupted from my mouth and my vison grew white. Think of it like getting a 3rd degree burn on your tongue and not being able to ease the pain of said burn with anything. I managed to somehow keep my mouth closed without screaming, but once Hannah brought her fingers away from my lips I did what any other sensible human would do.

I cried. No wait, I need a better word. Something more describing for it…ah, I know. I sobbed a river. Yeah, that's much better.

"N-Nichole…"

I looked over to my three friends. They all looked concerned beyond belief. On Maddie's back rested a near-naked Alois, who just stared at me with his barely responsive eyes.

"It's okay now." Hannah said, holding onto my hand, "Come on, you can stand Nichole. All I did was rid you of that cursed contract with Claude."

So she basically preformed a laser-tattoo-removal? Gee, if it hurt as much as that, I am never getting a tattoo. I nodded and took her hand, and stood up. After regaining my balance, I turned to Gabby, Maddie, Cate, and Alois, who was looking even worse sadly. "O-Okay, I'm good now…Let's go now, before Claude and Grell get here."

Everyone who was able to nod did and we all began to head out. Despite the LARGE GAPING HOLE IN HER TORSO, Hannah was able to keep pace with us easily. I was worried for her, I was, but Alois was much more important to me currently. He needed to get out of here, as soon as possible the better. If anything else happens to him, I don't know what I'll do…

"N-Nic…hole…"

That mutter was obviously Alois. I turned towards him and held his hand as tightly as I could. "What is it…?"

He squeezed my hand back lightly, and just said something I'd never expect to come out of a dirty mouth like his. "Thank you…"

As much as it embarrasses me to say this, I felt my cheeks grow way too red. He didn't say anything after I said "you're welcome" though. It's fine though, I understand. I wouldn't exactly want to speak when I was in extreme pain either.

"Look, there is the portal back to our time!" Cate shouted, interrupting my much-wanted fluff moment with Alois. Ah well, this is only the foreword of the story, so I'm sure they'll be more "aww" moments later. "Come on, before that damn Claude catches us!"

"Oh, but I already have."

Nonononononononono! Not now! Anytime but now! "C-Claude!" I yelled as that cursed butler stepped out from the woods, right next to the portal.

"Yes, I am aware that my name is that, you impertinent child." Claude said, looking extremely bored with us. "Now, hand over my pawn. One cannot play chess without all of the pieces, no matter how insignificant they are."

Wow, this just became No Game No Life rather quickly. That or Claude was having a midlife crisis and wanted to be exactly like Ciel…for some reason. "Claude, we are not fighting you. I will never give you Alois!"

At my (not really) amazing hero speech, the spider butler only shook his head. "My, my, you have willpower, I will give you that. As you have porbably learned in life, sadly, willpower alone only drives your heart. It does not win battles and it does not give victory…Anyway, I am here to strike a deal."

Oh great, this won't end well… "What is it then?" I asked him, squeezing Alois's hand as tight as I could.

"I am allowed to come to your time too."

"Like hell we'll let you!" Gabby yelled, looking like she was about to unleash her inner monster. "Just stay here and rot like the (&$# you are!"

At her unladylike language, Claude made a TCH noise. "How unpleasant, miss. However, there is the fact that if you do not agree to my terms I can just follow you all into that portal and kill everyone in your families…"

"No way!" I said all too quickly.

"Then you'll have to let me come with you…" Claude said, a giant smirk on his face.

Hannah took a step forward, like she was going to challenge the butler to an Ag Ni Kai. But as she did I noticed that she was bleeding much more than before. "H-Hannah!" I took her hand and shook my head. It would be useless to have her try to attack him in the state she was in.

"B-But we cannot allow him to follow us!" Hannah exclaimed.

"Well we can't have you die on us either." I said, sounding more sure about what I was saying than I actually was. "Look, let's ju-"

"HEEEEYYYYYY!"

"Now, run!"

All was chaos. Grell lunged out of nowhere at Claude, whom he was now in a heated battle with. As much as I wanted to watch Claude to get his butt whooped, I was pushed by who I can only assume was Hannah. In a few seconds we had all leapt right through the swirling vortex thingy.

As expected, like the last time, my mind began dizzying. Expect, something felt different. Not good different, like when you get a new flavor of ice cream though, The different you feel when you have to buy newly shaped earbuds and they hurt your ears. But as I tried to figure out what the heck that metaphor I just made meant, my sight left me. I heard screaming too, but soon that was drowned out with white noise. It was only a matter of seconds before my mind was overtaken by this otherworldly darkness.


	3. The Cold Hard Truth Hurts

I bolted right up from under my covers of my bed, about to yell something…when I realized it was only my brain being itself as always. Ugh, even though it's been over seven months, I still have frequent nightmares about that part of my little adventure with Alois back in November.

Of course it might've also been the fact that I has fallen asleep with my earbuds blaring a Gakupo_Power song. Pretty sure that would wake anyone up asap.

My mouth opened in a yawn and I swung my legs over the side of my bed. Pulling the earbuds out of my ears, I set them next to my phone, which was blessing me with its great power of YouTube. The date on it said May 26th; awhile since Alois started living with me. My friends had never really figured out why we had all blacked out that day, even though Cate did extensive research.

My fuzzy memories of just an hour ago reminded me that I has fallen asleep doing some math problems in my room. Ah well, it was boring math anyway.

"Ugh…" I muttered aloud as I stood up and glanced back at my bed. It was all messy (like it ever wasn't) with my anime plushies sprawled all over. My Kaito doll was holding my book I was using for Pythagorean Theory help open, and by the looks of it, Alois had put him on there. As weird as it sounds, Alois always came into my room whenever he pleased to steal things (ex. never used make-up, my plushies, books, and once I toothbrush I threw out the second I realized he used it).

I headed downstairs at my own leisurely pace of 00.02 miles an hour and walked into the living room. Sitting around the table was Alois, Hannah, and my little sister Bella. Al was busy trying to figure out how to work my old Nintendo 3DS, while Hannah was busy on the one she bought for herself so that we could have proper Pokémon battles every Saturday night. Bella was on her tip-toes, studying Alois's 3DS screen with upmost intensity.

"Ah, you're up it seems." Hannah said, not even moving her eyes to notice my presence. "About time too; dinner is almost ready."

"We're having Mac and Cheese!" Al exclaimed, looking gleefully over at me. "Bella and I made it without Hannah's help!"

"Yeah, we didn't have help or anything!" My sister said, trying to copy Alois. She looked up at the blonde boy like a role model. To be honest, I'm kind of against her with thinking about Alois that way.

"The fact that the house is not ablaze is proof enough that Hannah helped you two, Alois." I stated, remembering the many times Alois decided it would be the most amazing idea ever to put toast in the microwave for over a half hour. "Anyway, Hannah, where's Mom and Dad?"

"Your mother said she's caught up at work and your father is somewhere in New York currently fixing some of the electronic billboards. He said he won't be home until very, very late." Hannah said as her level 68 Metagross smashed a Gym Leader's pokémon into oblivion.

"K." I said, yawning again. "Al, wanna go outside and swing with me? I'm pretty sure your rope won't break this time around."

Alois rolled his eyes (which were packed to the brim with mascara and eye-shadow from my side of the bathroom sink) and stood up. "Sure, but if that damn thing breaks again I am gonna get you for not fixing it correctly." After that he made a passing comment about his butt and how it was too amazing to be broken, but I think you'll be fine with just that sum of it.

"Okay, okay, I get it." I said, stifling a laugh.

Since Alois had recovered from his stab wound, my life had changed rather rapidly. He moved into the extra room in the basement, where he painted the entirety of the place pink and added every kind of touch he could. While he wasn't going to my middle school, everyone basically knew I had a hot blonde boy living in her house in secret. As you'd expect, rumors spread like wildfire through a dried out forest. Now I was no longer Nichole Simons, that nobody who gets laughed at for just for wearing videogame shirts. Oh no, now I was Nichole Simons, the girl who had a sexy boy living in her basement and was claiming he was from another era.

Hannah smiled and waved her hand at us as we walked outside out into my woods of a backyard. "Race ya?"

"Hell yeah!" Alois yelled before running off and leaving me in a cloud of dust spurred up from his boots. They were some of the only things from his original outfit he wore here we could save. Only his dear purple frock and boots were left. Oh, don't worry, his walk-in closet has more booty shorts than any human other than him would think to buy.

By the time my not-so-athletic body towed itself over to the swing-set, Alois was sitting on his swing, holding the rope to my swing in one hand. "You're honestly the slowest person in the world, Nichole." He said, a big ol' smirk on his smug face.

"Naw, I just let you win." I said, not really meaning it. I really had ran as fast as I could. "Just give me my swing, please."

"Not until you say it." Ugh, is he really pulling this stunt again? He may be fifteen, but the rest of him is that of a nine year who thinks poop jokes are hilarious.

"Alois, just give me the swing. Now. We're not maid and Earl anymore, you said it yourself."

The blonde just kept that dumb smirk on his face. "C'mon! Just one more tiiimmmee!"

Ugh. "Okay, okay." I got down onto the dirt ground and bowed deeply. "Yes, your Highness."

Alois giggled like a little girl on a pony ride and let my swing go. "See it wasn't that hard, right?"

I just rolled my eyes as a reply and sat down onto my rotting wooden swing. Truth be told, one day it's gonna break and I hope its Alois who lands on his butt rather than me. "So, how is home-schooling with Hannah going?"

"You ask me this every day." The blonde complained, digging the points of his heels into the dirt. "It's fine as usual I suppose. It would be much more fun if I had some friends around though."

While Al complained about not having friends non-stop, I can see where he's coming from. Since he started living with me, I kept him away from other people. Hannah says it's because I want him to myself but I don't think she fully understands. If word got out that I had somehow gotten a anime character into our day and age, well, who knows what would happen. I urged Al to change his name, but he was stubborn like a donkey.

"You'll meet a friend one day, just not now…" I stated, keeping my eyes away from him. "I promise…"

"Promises are for dummies. They don't last…" Jeez, someone's a buzz kill.

"HEY!"

Ah man, not now. I turned around to see about five or six of the annoying boys in my class all swarm out of the back-door to my neighbor's house and wave to me and Alois. My twin neighbors were my age, and always stirring up trouble one way or another. Now that their little group was over, it'd be even more of a problem.

"I know the drill…" Alois said unhappily as he stood up and began walking back inside.

Now here is where I made the biggest mistake ever. Honestly if I had just kept my mouth shut like at school, none of the rest of this book would've happened. But, as you can figure out, I didn't do that.

"Wait, Alois!" I said, jumping up and grabbing his arm. "Uh, why don't you try to make friends with one of these guys? They're all from my school, so I know 'em. I think you'd like hanging out with them."

At my (really regrettable) words, Al's face went from sad to the happiest I'd seen him since the day my mom brought home chocolate-covered strawberries from some fancy food place. "Really?!"

"Yeah, you deserve some friends your own gender." I said as I forced a fake smile. "Now go on, have fun. But don't leave their house and just go straight home after okay?"

"Okay, okay. Jeez, are you my mum or something now?" Alois said, taking my hand off his arm. He waved at the crowd of boys over the off-white fence and took one glance at him. "By the way, your friends always bored me anyway. BYE!"

Okay, that was pushing it a bit far. Sure, we just talked, played videogames, watched anime, but we weren't that boring...And I was definitely not like his "mum"! "Uh, bye Al..." I'll miss you while you're gone, but I know you won't miss me.

As Alois jumped right over the fence in one swoop, I felt my heart ache for a second. Unlike when I first met him, Al was much more independent. I felt like every day that passed he grew up more. Part of me said that pretty soon he wouldn't even need me, and the other part of me kept saying that was a lie. Which one was right was out of my mind process.

So I then turned to go back inside, feeling defeated. What a fourteenth birthday this was turning out to be. Al didn't even remember…

Ah well, at least…uh….yeah, I got nothing.


	4. My Blood-Stained Prince Charming

"Hannah, are you gonna come with us on vacation?"

The old demoness was busy fighting my 71 Shaymin with her level 74 Dragonite via Wi-Fi battle. "I doubt it. Your family isn't too happy about me wanting to come too."

I sighed, thinking about how much my parents _really _liked Alois and Hannah living with us. "Yeah, I can see that...I would love it if you came though. My dad said he'd pay for Al's plane ticket, but only because I practically begged him."

Hannah nodded as her Pokémon destroyed mine in one fell swoop. "Yes…by the way, I am not totally in the know with what is going on with your vacation. Where are you going and what are you going to do there?"

"Well, we're going to Florida, as cliché as that is. Thankfully though we aren't gonna go to Disney World. Instead it's Universal Studios. We're also gonna go to Medieval Times, some historical garden, the zoo, the beach, and my little cousin's baptism." I explained, "Seeing that we live so up north, we'll be flying for a good long while. After Universal we're gonna stay at my Mom's side of the family's house. Thankfully, since Alois is coming, my mom said she'd let me and Alois go to this dance competition to spectate."

"Oh, he'll adore that." Hannah said, a small smile on her face. "By the way, your mum was going to come home, but someone broke into five different cars at her school and now she's tied up trying to find the person responsible."

Wow, that was disturbingly ironic enough to be hilarious. After all, it was parent conference day at her pre-school. "Greaaattt."

"My words exactly." Hannah replied, "…Again, I am sorry about not coming to Florida with you. I can come in the blink of a second if you want me to though, using demon speed."

I smiled as a reply. Hannah was a very dependable friend, even though she was a 10,000 year old demon from Hell.

"Nichole…" Oh no. Hannah's voice suddenly went low, like she was going to start crying. "I overheard your parents talking. They want me and Alois gone."

I sighed, as I was being pushed into a corner with only one Pokémon left. "I know…as I said before Hannah, maybe if you got a human job they'd like you more."

"Human job? I'd much rather stay away from those now. I'm retired." Hannah said, her stupid pokemon killing mine, making me loose. "And as you've suggested, I've been holding my hunger in. I think I'll suffice for at least a year or so at this rate, however…"

Oh great, this talk again. How fuuuuuuuuuuun. "Hannah, I've told you before. Once your hunger is uncontrollable for _tamashii, _just go to Alaska or somewhere and feast there. As long as it's no one from Gold Rush, because those guys are my Friday night entertainment."

"I am aware, don't fret." She said, stifling a laugh. "For more news, Alois told me yesterday he wants to ask you out to a date during your little week vacation."

"A-A-A-A-A-A DATE?!"

Uh, ah, no. You see, me and Alois hadn't had any romantic moments since the accidental kiss from our sword-fighting incident. In fact, we acted much more like family than anything. Sure, his Bipolar outbursts had lessened since he'd moved in, but I Googled that, and most resources say that Bipolar-ness doesn't get better or worse from being around people he or she loves. Not that Alois loves me or anything, no way did I say that! I still liked him more than just friends of course, but still!

"Yes, a date. He didn't say it directly, but he kept me asking about how dates in this era work and what kind of date you'd like." Hannah said, rather nonchalantly. In fact she almost sounded bored. This was NOT the time to sound bored Hannah!

"A-And, what did you tell him?" I said, trying my best to not sound like a little girl freaking out about seeing a kitty-cat she wants. "J-Just out of curiosity!"

The demoness laughed and just shrugged. "Nothing much, to be honest. He was all eager about it though..."

I felt my cheeks grow red, much to my un-liking. I hate it when I look embarrassed. "O-Oh. Well my parents said I'm not allowed to even get interested in a male until I'm sixteen. My dad especially forbids it. Seeing how much Alois and him butt- their shaggy heads together, I doubt even after I move out he'll allow us to be alone in the same room."

"Now, now, don't jinx your luck like that dear." Hannah said, smiling like this was all a stupid joke. "Calm down, all I did was tell him to take you to the mall or something for a bit. I figured you appreciate that seeing how Hot Topic just restocked lots of their anime inventory."

Wow, Hannah knows me better than Alois does…not weird. Also how did she know they just restocked? "Huh, that is a good date idea. As long as he brings a bunch of money to spend on me, it'll be fun."

It was then that the terrible, unspeakable horror that I foreshadowed earlier happened.

Hannah raised her rapidly up, and her eyes went wide. "Did you hear that…? It sounded like Alois…"

I turned around and strained my ears to hear anything, but only the nice greeting of a fly buzzing RATHER ANNOYINGLY around my head was heard. "Uh, no; I don't hear anything."

Hannah got up really quickly, a scared expression on her face. "Nichole, go out to make sure Alois is okay. I'll come too, but I need to make sure Bella is safe too."

Bella safe too? Why would she matter, she was upstairs asleep. "U-Uh, okay Hannah…" I was going to tell how much this confused me, but decided against it last second. Instead I bounded right out of my house and out to the woods called my backyard. It was then I heard what Hannah did.

Alois crying.

"Alois!" I said, very afraid for him. "AL!"

Then I heard another sound. Many to be exact (which my writing teacher always tells me to be). The many boys of my classes laughing and snorting.

A thousand ideas of what was happening whirled around my head. Were those awful people torturing Alois?! No, they couldn't be…

Running over to the old wooden fence, and then quickly vaulted like a showhorse over it. What I saw scared my skeleton out of me.

All five of my classmate boys were in a circle around Al, all while were firing their Nerf guns and kicking him. They kept saying some dialogue to him that I would put here, but if I did I'd have to kick myself in the head for doing so. Alois, bless his soul, was on the ground laying on his stomach, taking all these blows and being humiliated. His eyes were red and puffy from crying, and I felt my heart ache at the sight of him like that.

There are lots of things I cannot stand. Some examples are homophobes, stupid loud people, annoying Christian protesters (despite being said religion myself), and internet trolls. However, when it comes to a bunch of idiot delinquents beating up Alois Trancy, it soars beyond anything that I've listed previously.

My inner Super Saiyan was fully unleashed and I went flying and screaming at them. This startled them pretty bad apparently, as they all scattered yelling more adult words. I'm pretty sure after that I made a low growling noise with my throat, and got down to the grassy ground next to Alois. His bottom lip was bleeding badly and his left eye was beginning to swell into a black eye.

"Al…" I muttered as I reached to help him up, "You okay…? What happened…?"

Alois refused my hand and instead just looked at me like a puppy that just peed on the rug. "N-Nichole…W-We were just p-playing when t-they…"

"When he became a *insert your favorite bad word here* and we decided he wasn't cool enough to hang out with us. So we gave him a proper send off with some ball crushin' kicks and a few bruises." Said my one neighbor, a smirk on his face. A smirk that I now despised.

"I hate you…I…HATE YOU!" I screamed as loud as I could and stormed over to him like I was Hurricane Nichole, "GET AWAY FROM ALOIS AND ME!"

I clenched my fists as tight as it could go and threw a punch at him, aimed at the jaw. But because I am not Black Widow or anything special, he rather quickly intercepted it, holding my hand in the air.

"Let h-her go…" I heard Alois mutter, his voice achy and slow. "Before I kill you…"

Oh crap, this was getting bad! My neighbor obviously didn't know how dangerous Alois is, and ignored the threat. "Yeah right you big baby. You ain't even worth getting in our way, Eloise."

And then Hell broke loose.

Alois jumped right up and grabbed the nearest boy, that said boy being my neighbor's twin brother and stuck two fingers right into his eye socket. And just to weird you out, I'll describe it. That boy's eye spilt and became like red-dyed goo. It splattered everywhere, machining red pulpy polka dots in the green grass. His creams echoed everywhere, and the other boys around me screamed in unison with him. I, for one, just stood there, taken in by Al's eyes. They were small and violent-looking and a smile was on his lips as he maimed the boy's eye.

As soon as happened, it ended. Alois pulled his bloody fingers out of Sam's right eye-socket and laid flat on his back, looking absolutely exhausted. The boys all instantly ran to their friend, and I didn't waste a moment to get to Al.

"Al…"

"It's what they get…" He said, still smiling. "It's what they deserve…I am worth something…I have to be…"

My eyes widened, and I held his bloodied hands in mine. "Alois….let's go home, okay?"

He nodded silently and pulled himself up, with a lot of my help. His entire body was shaking and tears flowed from his eyes.

"Look at what you've done!" Sam's brother screamed at us, his face red and beginning to tear up. "You've blinded my brother, you monster!"

"Who is the real monster…?" I mumbled, throwing my arm around Al's shoulder helping support him. "How about you ask yourself that…"

With that badarse statement, Alois and I were both on our way to our side of the fence. I jumped over it, but Alois needed to be half-lifted to get over the splintered pieces of wood. Behind us the five boys were yelling and screaming everything possible as they brought the wounded twin inside his house.

"You were brave…" Al said as he stumbled close to me.

"Thanks…Al, we're gonna be in so much trouble now…" I said, sighing. "They're gonna sue us for all we owe and-"

"Stop…"

I looked at Alois's eyes, which had gone back to normal. "S-Stop what…?" I questioned, rubbing my fingers together. They were both red from the blood Alois had on his hands.

"Stop being annoying and let me kiss you."

Wwowowowowowow what?! "U-Uh, excuse me?"

As I said that, Alois did exactly what he said a few seconds earlier. This time, instead of being accidental and awkward, it was, well, I don't know. But I do know Alois had blood all over his lips.

Yuck.


	5. This Chapter is Too Cool for a Title

"So let me get this straight, you went to play with the boys next-door, they started picking on you and hurting you, so you gorged one their eyes out?!"

"Wow, when you say it like that it sounds a lot worse…" I stated, keeping my eyes far away from my Mom's. She was really angry over what happened, and I can see why.

"Eh, sounds the same to me." Alois said, his expression that of an ADHD boy being forced to concentrate on paint drying on a wall. "Besides, I thought you were concerned we were kissing."

"You bet I am!" My mother exclaimed. Oh boy, this was bad. "I don't want you two next to each other until the plane ride to Florida; that is if the SWAT team doesn't come for us first!"

Ooooh, that explained why she made Al and I sit on different sides of the couch. "Mom, look, it's fine. It wasn't anything spicy or something. It just kind of happened…"

My mom cocked one of her eyebrows and was about to say something when Alois stood up and met her face to face. Well, as much as he could anyway. He is so tall he looks over her. They kind of just stared at one another for an unconformable amount of time before my mom just shook her head and stepped away.

"Relax, please." Hannah said, her demeanor exhausted-looking. It was here and now I realized how old Hannah was and that four hours straight of playing on 3DSes was not healthy for a demoness of her tender age. "Your family and Alois can still go on your vacation. I am able to use my powers and wit to throw them off you all."

"Hannah, that's nice but I'm not exactly sure about-"

"Hannah, listen to me only."

Everyone stared at me as I raised my voice. I looked up at the demon and cleared my throat. "Hannah, I order you to keep the police off our scent for the entire week we are away. I will not accept failure, got it?"

Hannah narrowed her eyes (yes her eyes. I forgot earlier to mention that her destroyed eye had been fixed thanks to her demon powers) at me and nodded. "I understand…"

Alois looked at us both in disbelief. "Uh, are you two contracted or something…?"

Before my mom could scream bloody hell, the demoness intercepted her. "No, we aren't. Nichole just wanted to make a point. Currently I contracted to no one…"

Heck yeah I wanted to make a point. I saw Hannah raise her left hand to her stomach, flinching slightly. The idea of her not even being contracted to anyone must've upset her unruly stomach.

Mom just shook her head. "I am still very concerned for all this. If the news gets hold of Alois Trancy being the eye-destroyer-guy, it will be known that you somehow got a mythical blonde psychopath in this era we'll be in big trouble! I never wanted him here either! He and this, this, Satan-servant are messing up our lives and are going to be the end of us, I swear! I don't want them here anymore!"

"MOM."

I didn't want to shout. I didn't, but I had to. She had crossed the line. No one, not even my mother, talked about my friends that way.

"D-Don't try to defend me…"

I turned my head to Alois, who was crying quietly, with his expression blank. "W-What…?" I asked him.

"I said don't defend me…" Alois said, a bit louder, "I know you no one here likes me…I know no one in the world love me…So why would you even defend me? It doesn't make sense. You don't get me Nichole, no matter how much you think! Just…Just…let me DIE!"

With that he jumped off the couch and ran as fast as he could downstairs into the basement, aka his room. My fists clenched and my teeth gritted themselves. This was not happening, it couldn't be. "I won't let you die Al…not even if you have a death wish…" I mumbled this and then tore downstairs after him, leaving Hannah and my mom to fight each other by themselves.

I got to the bottom of the stairs to reach Alois's room, in all of it's pink glory. On his bed (aka our old couch with blankets on it), laid Alois, his hands over his eyes and sobs escaping from his mouth. No matter how many times I see him cry, it still hurts me internally.

"Al…" I said quietly as I walked slowly over to him. "Al, are you okay…?"

Alois didn't respond for a second, but when he decided to he said, "Tell me you love me…"

I blinked in response. "U-Uh, why? You know I d-"

"SAY IT." He shouted, his two hands trembling wildly. "I'll only believe you if you say it…P-Please…"

I sighed and put my hand over his, "I love you, Alois…"

"…Now hug me."

Uh, what the heck? Am I his servant again? He hasn't ordered me like this since forever ago. But based on the mental stability he is in currently, I guess I just had to go with it. "S-Sure…" I said before hugging him tightly. He was warm, like he had a terrible fever.

"…You do mean it, don't you…" He said, slowly beginning to hug me back. "You really do…"

A small smile formed on my lips. "Yeah, I do…"

"Yeah…will you stay with me…? For a little bit, just 'till I fall asleep…" Alois asked, his sobs becoming nothing but a memory.

"Sure!" I said, not caring about what my mom had said earlier. "Of course I will. But know that around midnight we have to leave for our plane. You won't be getting much sleep if you try to know, to be honest."

"That's fine." Al relied, pushing me away from our little hug. You can sit on the edge, I'll lay down…"

Yeah, okay, that sounds SUPER fair. "Alright." I said with a fake smile. What? I mean come on, that was kind of rude. "Goodnight Alois…see you in a bit."

"Goodnight Nichole…" Alois bunched up the blankets around him and smiled at me.

I smiled back at him. "Night Al…"

* * *

><p><em>….In the middle of the night….<em>

* * *

><p>"Alois, wake up! We have to go, now! The airport is an hour away from our house and if we wanna catch it we have to hurry!"<p>

At my yelling Alois just grumbled. So, as any great person would do, I slapped him with the nearest pillow.

"What the hell was that for?!" He hollered at me, sitting straight up with an angry face that was more adorable than evil. "I don't like being awakened by a pillow in my face."

I rolled my eyes. "Al, let's just go, okay? We have lots of miles to drive until we reach the airport."

"Maybe we could reach it faster and not have to get up this late if you moved out of this nowhereland." Alois said, standing up and pulling his purple jacket over himself.

"This isn't nowhere land, it's a mountain valley in the Appalachians." I stated, having to explain this for the millionth time. "Now, are you gonna move your butt or not? My parents and Bella-boo are already in the car!"

"They are? Oh, sorry but not sorry." Alois leaned over and grabbed his pink floral suitcase. "Okay, let's go get captured by the fuzz."

"They aren't the fuzz, they are the police. Don't be disrespectful." I said, crossing my arms and staring at him in the eyes. I love Al, I do, but he needs to be nicer sometimes. "Besides, we are not gonna get captured, remember? Hannah has everything under control."

"So she says anyway…" Alois mumbled as we both headed upstairs and then into the garage. "You can never really tell with that woman…"

I climbed into the car and headed to the very back, along with all of our suitcases and other things. Alois joined me shortly, and we both squeezed close together to fit.

"Nichole, you and Alois are only sitting next to another because there isn't any more room. Remember that…" My father said, his voice filled with over-protective dadly-ness.

"I will Dad." I replied. I needed to get on his good side, that way he wouldn't blow his steam off on poor Alois. "So, uh, anyway, how did your Greil Army work out in Fire Emblem? We spent so much time on it, it would be a giant let-down if it was all for nothing."

It worked like a charm. In a second the convo left from me and Alois to Yune and Ike. Ah Nintendo games, what would I do without ya? Of course, we weren't even top the nearest Target before my mom decided to drop a bomb.

"Alois, you're getting baptized at Nichole's cousin's baptism too."

I'm pretty sure both Alois and I had our jaws drop so low they made a large clang on the floor. That or it was Bella's plastic water cup being dropped from her falling asleep.

"Mom, you can't really be serious!" I exclaimed, "I mean, Alois is still contracted to a demon! An awful, pitiful, soulless demon at that! If you dump holy water on his head, why, who knows what the heck could happen! He could erupt into flames or turn into an Alois-puddle of lava! Please, don't make him get baptized now!"

"Nichole, I'm not giving the boy a choice in this. He's doing what I say, that's final. He's a criminal after all…" I could tell she wanted to ramble on, but she needed to keep her eyes on the road and focus.

I turned to Alois, but his face told me he was much too tired to complain. It was here I realized just how dang tired I was as well, and how much I wanted to just sleep. So I yawned (like any tired child would) and leaned against Alois's arm. He didn't protest, and I closed my eyes. It would be awhile until we got on the plane, and it wasn't like anything could get worse.

Wow, my foreshadowing is as shallow as a kiddy pool, isn't it?


	6. Plane Rides From Hell

After an hour of drowning myself in Yohio songs in a vain attempt to calm myself down, we reached the airport. The last time I'd been on a plane, well, I was so little I don't remember it.

"Whoa, this is the plane-flying place?" Alois asked as we stepped outside of our car and into the dirty pavement. "It's big and fancy."

"Yeah, the toilets even flush by themselves." I stated, helping my dad get out all our suitcases. "If that isn't fancy, I don't know what is anymore."

Alois just rolled his big blue eyes at me and took out his suitcase. I think I should mention this by the way; Alois is just like a normal kid. You know how he looks in the anime, right? Well, he looks like that, but much more regular looking. He has zits, marks, and any other thing that any real person would have. He isn't perfect by any means. True, his eyes are a bit bigger than most and his hair only requires three minutes to be brushed to perfection; however, he is just like us.

"Okay, we have fifteen minutes before we have to board. Nichole and Alois, I'm putting you two in charge of getting us all snacks. It is the most important mission, got it? After retrieving said snacks, you are to report to Gate 4-12 immediately. I'll give you the money now." My dad told us, his inner game-geek showing as he handed me a forty bill. He seemed to have completely forgotten the fact Alois had just blinded my neighbor in his one eye a few hours ago. "You get fifteen experience plus from it, and maybe some surprise gear if you do it in less than ten. Do you accept your quest?"

As Alois just stared at my dad like he was crazy, I nodded with enthusiasm. Ask any of my friends, and they'll tell you how I come alive at night way more than at day. "Yes sir! Come on Al, once we check in and send our suitcases away, we'll be ready."

"Uh, yeah, what she said." Alois said with a blank expression on his face. The boy truly didn't understand geek talk, no matter how many times I explained it. "I call getting a pizza calzone. Those things are pretty damn good."

Ah Al, he would never change. Unless he got all bipolar and stuff, then he'd change indefinitely. "Okay, as long as it's not too much money or ridiculously big."

"Fiiiinnnnee." Alois whined, "Let's go, before our flying-contraption leaves."

I waved off to my family as me and Alois headed towards the tempting smells of any kind of food imaginable. The food court wasn't that far into the airport, in fact it was basically a couple steps away from the lobby and bathrooms (which Al had to try, as the toilets did indeed flush themselves).

"Okay, what do you wanna get? The pizza store in the corner doesn't have any calzones." I said, staring at the menus of all the mini shops. I was already eyeing up some sushi that looked very tasty. My dad would suffice with the sushi I'd return to him, so it was a win-win.

"I dunno." The blonde said, sounding very bored. "…Uh, Nichole, about erailer, when I kissed you…"

Oooooohhhhhhh no. "Uh, what about it…?" Crap, what was he gonna say?! My brain can only imagine…

"I didn't mean it. In fact, I take it back." Al said, putting his hands in his plum frock and pursing his lips.

Wut…? I blinked at him in surprise. "You take it…back?"

"Yeah, you heard me right." Alois said, a smile on his face that I totally didn't feel like scrapping off. "I didn't mean it. It was a spur of the moment thing. In all honesty, I rather not think of you as courting material. You're much too…you to be my girlfriend or whatever you people in this time call it."

….Did he just call me undesirable? I think he did….That. Freaking. Bastard.

"Oh MY! That is NO way to treat a LADY!"

My anger suddenly was whisked away as I heard someone I thought was long-gone. Only one person and one person only in the world did that raspy, over-exaggerated voice. And that was… "G-Grell Sutcliff!?"

"It's GRELLA Sutcliff now dear!" Sure enough, there he was. Except, he was dressed as a girl. Grell(a) had his long red hair in a loose braid, and had his glasses neatly on the bridge of his nose like always. He had a beautiful red sparkly dress and all in all looked ready to go out into town with another man. "As in, a WOMAN'S name. Thank WILL you came, little dear! Without you, I would've never become a real WOMAN!"

I'm still in shock. "Grell, I thought you stayed back in the 1890's! I didn't see you enter the portal…You or Claude for that matter. It's all a wild blur."

"Oh trust me DEAR, It is a BLUR for me too!" Grell(a) stated, shaking his hips and making a kissy-face. "And I TOLD you, it's GRELLA now."

Alois wasn't convinced. "You're not a girl! You're a guy! I've cross-dressed before, trust me, I know all the tricks. You're obviously fake." And then Alois decided to be dumb and grabbed (yes grabbed) Grell(a)'s chest. In public around everyone…..oh boy.

"HEY! You annoying pervert!" With a quick and hard slap that could be heard from anywhere, Grell(a) slapped Alois's cheek, leaving a giant red mark. He did deserve it though, so I have to be on Grell(a)'s side. "I AM a girl!"

Alois had obviously figured that out, as his eyes were like big blue balloons and a smirk was beginning to show on his lips. "I see…But I just need to check for sure. Nichole, wo-"

It was then my turn to slap him.

* * *

><p>"That double slap wasn't needed." Alois mumbled as he held his small soda up to his maroon-red cheek. "I was just joking."<p>

"With you, I feel like I can never tell…" I stated, taking a bite of my spider roll. It was yummy, as usual. "Thank you for helping us pay, Grella."

Grell(a) nodded, a giant smile on his face. Indeed, he was now a girl. If you noticed however, I'm sticking to calling him a him. "No PROBLEM dear. You were only one dollar short after all, and I HAD to chip in."

Aw, he's nice. "So, Grella, what have you been doing since I last saw you? Other than of course the whole gender thing."

"Ah, nothing much." Grell(a) said as he continued walking with us from the food court. "I've resigned from being a Grimm REAPER, and I'm basically a normal HUMAN now. I LOVE everything so far, but I HATE the whole aging thing. Soon I'll look ugly! Can you believe that!?"

It was a bit trouble not laughing, but I did it somehow. "Yes, I can believe that. It's natural to age, Grella."

"I suppose…I just hope to find SEBBY!"

Now that stopped me in my tracks. "Sebastian is alive?" I asked.

"Oh yes, that DARLING is!" Grell(a) said, swaying to one side and freaking poor Alois out. "No one really knows where he is though. After that BRAT's death, he basically disappeared from the world. Neither Hell or Heaven occupies him, and thus I've been searching RESTLESSLY for my dear BASSY!"

"Oh…That's weird." I said, trying to understand it all. So after he ate Ciel's soul, Sebastian completely disappeared. Yeah, that's not suspicious at all.

"Indeed." Grell(a) said, a gleaming smile on her face. "Now, I must be off! My search for my BASSY leads me to another city in another state! Bye-Bye!" And without a second to say goodbye, he was off.

I smiled at him as he left, and then turned to Alois. "Okay, you have the map to Gate 4-12, right?"

Alois nodded, "Yeah, it's in my pocket. Can you get it? My hands are full with hamburger and soda."

I reached into his coat's front pocket and pulled out the airport map. "Okay…" I looked it over quickly and finally concluded that we needed to run very fast to reach our plane. "Alois, you can run in heels right?"

"Can you not be feminine? Duh, of course I can." Alois said hurtfully. He did not know how to impress a woman, let me tell you. I let that comment slide however.

"Okay, 'cause we need to run…like, now." As I finished my sentence we both gave each other the look and sprinted off in the direction towards Gate 4-12. I mean like racehorse sprinted by the way. We both barely made it through the door and into the tunnel leading to the plane. Alois and I headed to the back of the plane, also known as third-class.

"Thank goodness, there you two are!" My mom exclaimed once we were in sight of one another. "The plane is about to take off! You guys can sit there, behind us. Hurry now, the plane was supposed to be in the air by now!"

"S-Sorry, we got caught up talking to someone." I tried explaining quickly, taking Alois by his arm and sitting the seat my mom pointed to. They were actually the only seats available, and I was greeted by a bunch of angry-looking faces. "Well, at least we're the closest to the bathroom."

"That's not exactly an upside. That man over there has chili, so I'm sure we'll be seeing him come in and out of that stall a lot…" Alois stated, rubbing his eyes. It was then I realized just how exhausted the boy was. This day had worn him out, no doubt. "Hey, is it okay of I fall asleep on you?"

"Uh, I guess." I said, keeping my voice low so that my parents couldn't hear. "It's a two hour flight, so we'll arrive there at around two in the morning."

"Wonderful…" Alois murmured, yawning after his sentence. "By the way, I told you I get motion sick easily, right? I found that out back when I lived at the mansion with Claude and all those other damn demons…stupid carnival…"

Well, this was gonna be great. Now who would ride the roller coasters with me? "N-No…But I'm sure it'll be fine! The plane will only move a lot if it gets in a turbulence."

"Nichole!" My dad looked over his seat at us as the plane began speeding down the runway. "You and Alois brought your luggage, right?"

My eyes grew big, which isn't that attractive but the shock was enough for me to not care. "N-No! I thought you and Mom took it when we went out to get the food for everyone!"

My dad's eyes got big as well. "B-But, we thought you two kept your suitcases…"

Before both my dad and I could scream like hell, the plane's main flyer guy (I am so tired, I can't even pretend to know what he's called) spoke over the audio system. "Excuse me everyone, but we are receiving reports that there is a large amount of turbulence in out path. We apologize and advise you to keep in your seats."

Both Al and I exchanged glances to each other that read the same thing.

This was gonna be a long two hours.

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry it took me so long it update everyone, I'm really busy nowadays haha. <strong>


	7. Grimm Reapers and Vomit

Never had I been so tired in my life. I'm a night-owl through and through, and to be honest I was really looking forward to this flight! I was going relax and listen to some music with Alois Trancy by my side…or so I thought. I was dead wrong.

We landed in Orlando, Florida at 2:02AM. At that time, I was already covered in Alois-vomit and smelling vulgar. Al was more covered then me though, the poor kid. He had used almost all the doggie-bags in our seats in less than the first hour. After that it was our shirts who were the catchers.

By the time we got off the plane and into a rental car, it was 2:43AM. Why you may ask? Well let me tell you…

"Al, I cannot believe you wouldn't let my dad help clean you up…" I said as I dunked Alois's revolting shirt again and again under the soapy water of the boys' bathroom public sink. Don't worry, no one else was there, I mean, why would anyone be at this hour? "This may be the lowest point in life for me…"

"S-Shut up…." Alois said before groaning in the stall behind me. You aren't t-the one who v-vomited everywhere….And is n-now in a public s-stall half naked…"

"I am surrounded by urinals! I feel rather violated right now!" I exclaimed, pulling his shirt out of the sink and getting ready to dry it with one of those fancy air dryers. "And let's not forget I have to clean my shirt too, and will be standing here in my BRA!"

"…Still s-sounds better…" He mumbled, just loud enough I could hear him. "I just wanna get out o-of here…W-where's Hannah?"

"Back home." I replied wearily. "You know that…Don't go calling her, I can handle all this…to a point. I am willing to wash your shorts even, as long as we agree to never ever speak of any of the events that happened in this bathroom again. Deal?"

A sluggish and drunk-like "Yes…" replied back to me, and that was our unofficial handshake-less deal.

To be honest, I didn't think it'd work, but praise whoever you may worship, as it did. After cleaning off the puke from Al's clothes, he cleaned mine. Sitting in the boys' bathroom half-naked isn't as weird as it sounds actually…That sounds wrong… Anyway, we both got dressed without sneaking a peek of anything and headed out, our eyes drooping from our tiredness.

"So, uh, did you find our suitcases?" I asked as we neared my parents. Both looked ready to run a marathon, and Bella was fast asleep on my dad's shoulder. "These clothes are still damp and smell like a port-a-pot."

"Sorry guys, but we called back the airport and they reported no missing luggage was found…To be honest, it is most likely your clothes were stolen." My dad said, giving Al and I his 'sowwy' face.

"I had more than clothes in there!" Alois practically yelled, making me lean away from him. "I had make-up, I had books, and I had…I had the thing…"

"The…thing?" I repeated after him, skeptical of what just this "thing" was that he was so hesitant to talk about. "Would it be a breathe mint? 'Cuz you're in serious need of one…"

"No, it wasn't a breathe mint, idiot." Alois said, his voice going all loopy once more. Imagine a heavily drunk British man with an extremely puberty-ridden voice and you have Alois for the rest of this chapter. "It was something else. L-Look, you gotta find my suitcase! It has flowers on it! PINK FLOWERS!"

"Sh!" My mom quickly shut up poor Alois, who was in a total state of panic. "You'll wake up Bella! Now, listen, we are doing all we can to get your stuff back, so just calm down. The airport has our number and if they find our stolen suitcases they will report right to us."

"B-But…N-Nichole, you had more than clothes in your suitcase too, right?!" Alois said in a desperate-sounding voice, turning to me and weakly gripping my sleeve. "I'm not the only one who brought more than clothes, right?"

"Well, I brought an Ouran High School Host Club manga I borrowed from the library and my Kaito doll, but those are in Mom's suitcase. I put them there for safe keeping as well as my toiletries…Sorry Al…" I wished to pat him on the blonde head but the tears forming in his eyes told me otherwise.

"This day SUCKS!" Alois basically screamed the last part, and the one to two other families in the entire building turned their eyes towards us to watch the madness unfold. "I get separated from Hannah, I lose all my clothes and belongings, I lost the mega important thing I was gonna give you, and to top it all off, I hurt someone without meaning to! ...W-Well, I meant it, but you know what I mean…"

I nodded and finally abandoned all my common sense by just hugged him. As soon as I did he pushed me away (rather forcefully I might add) and gave me a look that would even scare Claude himself. "D-Don't touch me…"

I just stared at Alois, unable to really speak after that. "I-I…"

A short but awkward silence followed, but it was my mom whose phone broke the quiet barrier. I knew it was her phone instantly as no one else in my family had the ringtone of David Bowe singing "Magic Dance". She picked it up, furrowing her eyebrows at the number. "Why is the car-rental place we ordered our rental car calling…?"

I shrugged as my mom hit the answer button, still fully focused on Alois. He looked ready to bolt off towards the nearest cliff and fall off into the realm of the Underworld. He was like a little child really, a little child who didn't know how to trust or how to express feelings.

"Great…" My mom muttered, stuffing her phone back into pocket with a sigh. "Because we were late the people gave our rental car to someone else. So, in other words, we have no car to get to our hotel…"

"N-no car…?" I stuttered, "S-So in short you're telling me we're stranded at this airport? Can Aunt and Uncle get us? It's not too late, right…?"

Just as my mom was about to shake her head with a 'no', another miraculous and somewhat scarring thing happened.

"Father…look at those people…They said they needed a ride…"

"Yes they did, my dear Sylvia. Good eavesdropping…"

That voice….One of them belonged to… "U-Undertaker?!"

Leaning against the beige-colored wall only a few feet away was the Undertaker. He was wearing a dark leather jacket and (waytootight) matching pants. To his side was a girl who looked just a tad older than I did. She had the matching get-up and hair that covered her eyes and the same devilish smirk on her face.

"U-Uh, who are you?" My mom asked, getting all defensive incase she'd need to go all ninja on Undertaker and his Little Sister-like accomplice.

"Why, we are just lowly travelers dear." Undertaker stated, angling his face at just the right angle to show his piercing green emerald-like eyes. "Me and my daughter here, we just adore helping out people, be it their birth or death…"

Ew… Okay, so know I better play the hero and save my vacation/birthday. "U-Uh, Undertaker, could you help my family, Al, and I get to our hotel? You could escort us in your Hearse or something? I'll pay you…in laughs…"

At the mere mention of laughter both Undertaker and his "daughter" stared at me like I was deity in mortal form. Their skin also got all goose-bumby, so that's a thing… "A-A joke!? Ah, it gets my spine tingling at the mere mention of that wondrous word!"

The girl apparently named Sylvia's eyes grew bright and she tugged lightly on my shirt, her mouth beginning to foam slightly (weirdly). "Tell dear Sylvia a joke! Make her laugh! Pretty please!"

"Of course!" I said with a smile, honestly feeling rather violated but making sure not to show it. "Ok, this is a good joke! O-"

* * *

><p>What, you actually thought I'd tell you my sacred jokes? Heck no, they're mine and mine alone.<p>

So, more or less, we ended up in the back of Undertaker's van (which actually wasn't a Hearse), cuddled up with Alois, who had lost all the fight he had in him prior. My parents were just a few feet away eyeing us up like hawks during dinner. Thankfully they didn't say anything and me and Al just continued cuddling under our skull-and-crossbones blanket.

I wanted to talk to that interesting character, Sylvia, but my drooping eyelids and blonde boy on my shoulder, I decided against it. It was also here that in this scary van surrounded by Grimm Reapers that I finally did fall asleep once and for all that night.


	8. The Clipped Wings of a Former Slave

Never have I slept so soundly before. Was it was the way I was tucked in? Was it the fact that I just couldn't open my eyes? Was it because I was being drugged?

If you said yes to any of these answers, you are wrong.

I awoke with droopy eyes, but feeling rather refreshed. And...well, warm. At first I thought it must've been because of the humid Florida air, but my theory was quickly discharged as I looked over to my right.

Alois was fast asleep; his head on my shoulder and his arms wrapped around my midriff. He was snoring quietly, and a small smile laid on his lips. We were both in our clothes from yesterday, which I should've expected. What I didn't expect was the fact my arms were around Alois's torso as well.

"U-Uh, Alois…Alois…ALOIS!" On the last call of his name, I grabbed the nearest pillow and smacked the blonde right in the face with it. Needless to say, he awoke instantly.

"HUH?!" He jumped back and stared at me for second. His eyes went from big and afraid to soft and warm in a span of…uh, around half a second I'd say. "O-Oh, it's you. Did you have to wake me up like that!? Call it rude…"

"Well sorry…" I muttered. Telling him of what we had just been doing was out of the question. If I did indeed tell him, his stupid ego would go to his head, and I wouldn't hear the end of it. "Hey…where are my parents and Bella…?"

Alois and I turned our heads every which way, double checking the fact that my parents and sister were nowhere to be found. In fact…

"There isn't even another bed in here!" I exclaimed, tumbling out of the sheets and standing up on the 70's style carpet. "W-where are they?!"

"I dunno, but at least we're together…" Alois said with a devious smirk. "We could have some…al-"

"Hey, look! This is a note left from my mom!" Thank God I found that notepad when I did. The things that come spiraling out of his mouth are hardly ever PG… "It is definitely her, I can tell by the handwriting."

"Oooooh, what does it say?" Alois asked excitedly as he laid down on his stomach, and stuck his long legs in the air above him. "Is it something about my trial for gutting that wrench's damned eye out?"

"I'll read it out loud of you, don't worry." I stated, and did so. "'To Nic and Alois, if you read this, it must mean you two finally have woken up and noticed this note. There was a mix-up last night with our rooms, as everyone in this stupid half-rate hotel only speaks Spanish. Blame Dad on that, not me. Anyway, we had to buy you two your own room. I trust you, Nichole, to not engage in…uh…_activities _while you two are sleeping in the same room together. Alois I trust much less. Regardless, we will meet up with you two on the bottom level in the food-court area. If you're not down by ten A.M. I'll have your head for it. I left new clothes for you both, so get changed and head down here. –Mom.'"

"The way she wrote that one part made me sound like a perv." Alois said in an annoyed tone. "I am nowhere near that…I enjoy the figure of people, that's all."

BAD TOUCH STRANGER DANGER NOPE NOPE NOPE. "U-Uh, right…I'll go into the bathroom to change…" Without another word I grabbed my clothes and scurried into the bathroom. Ugh, he was a handful…

I quickly locked the door and changed into some of my mom's fresh clothes. This meant I was wearing a shirt that was way too big on me and jeans. Yay. At least they didn't smell like vomit at all, which has to be the best part. I didn't have my toiletries bag, but walking downstairs with only Alois and some Spaniards, it wouldn't be a problem.

I stuck my head out the door first, just to make sure I wouldn't walk out and get mooned. He was only missing his shirt, but on the angle I was facing, something caught my eye.

Scars. More scars than I could count. The ugly scars shown on his back in the rising sun, making me wince. Some looked old, and looked a lot like whip-marks that he probably got from back when he was slave. There were, however, newer looking ones. I wanted to study them, just to be sure the rising light and dust weren't playing with my vision, but alas, fate put a hand to my face and said nope. As soon as I laid my eyes on his newer-looking marks, Alois slipped his shirt up and over, making it impossible to investigate further.

I thought it'd be much better to pretend I saw nothing and stepped out, acting as if I hadn't seen anything. "Hey…nice booty-shorts."

Alois smiled and spun around like some kind of ballerina boy. "Thank you. Maybe here in this state of Floridians I can wear my shorts and not be judged."

"Al, no matter where you go in those things, people will make fun of you. Anyway, where the heck did you get those shorts? I thought your clothes were all lost last night." I said, crossing my arms. It was no fair that Alois got to wear his shorts while I was standing here in my mom's favorite 80's band shirt.

"So did I. I dunno where your parents got these to be honest." Alois stated as he slipped into his shoes. "Maybe your dad secretly likes these things."

"I think you just made me vomit a little in my mouth." I said, sticking my tongue out. "You just probably put a pair of your shorts into my dad's suitcase…By the way, what was that about losing 'the thing' last night?"

Alois's smug face dissipated at my mention of 'the thing'. "O-Oh, it was nothing."

"When anyone says it was nothing it ends up being the biggest thing ever that comes to bite the main characters in the butt." I said, crossing my arms. "Seeing how you're from a story yourself, I would think those laws apply to us as well."

Rolling his eyes like some kind of sassy gay dude, Alois stepped past me and grabbed the key-card that was in a pocket-holder thing taped to the door. "Eh, I'm done being the villain. Now, in this story, let's see how well I can play the hero…"

And with this statement, Al and I headed out the door, wandering towards what we hoped was going to be the elevator.

* * *

><p>"There you two are!" My dad exclaimed once Alois and I were in earshot among the many other words in language. "We were about to come up and get you!"<p>

"Sorry," I said, taking a seat across from Bella, who was busy digging her face into a yummy-looking strawberry muffin. "You know I'm not a morning person."

"I know, I know." My mom said, her eyes glued to Alois with an uneasy stare. "You okay too, Alois? I went out just to get you some of those stupid shorts…."

"Ooooh, that was where they came from!" Alois exclaimed, a small smile on his lips. "We were wondering how those got there!"

Despite my signaling, Al didn't say thank you. If there was one thing that ticked off my mom more than anything, it was not saying thanks.

"Ally! Ally, look!" Bella yelled, pointing at the TV mounted on the wall. "Lookie, it's you on the TV!"

We all simultaneously stared at the TV on the wall. Sure, the info being said was in Spanish, but we could more or less make-out what it was about. It was going on about how our neighbors were suing us for Alois's rash actions. The price of what they were suing us by was so giant my mom let out a small gasp. For a split second the station also showed a picture of Alois. Thank God it was a shot of him and me walking away though, so only the back of our heads were seen.

"Well…" I said, breaking the silence that followed once the channel moved onto a story about rats doubling their size in sewers. "Uh…I should probably text Hannah now…"

"That would be best." My dad said, reaching over to Bella's plate and taking one of her strawberry muffins. "Tell her to send them on the wrong trail for at least a little bit. We are going to enjoy this vacation if it kills us!"

"At the rate it's going, I wouldn't be surprised if that was case." I stated dryly as I pulled my phone out of my pocket. "Uh…can I have one of those muffins?"

"I'll get one for you, as I'm starving for one myself." Al stood up and began heading to the buffet table, but I quickly grabbed his sleeve. "Ugh, what? I'm trying to be nice and considerate for once!"

"I know you are, but put this one first." I shook my hoodie off and handed it to him. "Put the hood up, just as an extra measure to keep you concealed."

"Fine…" Alois mumbled and put my hoodie on, which was a little snug on his tall frame. "I'll be right back."

Don't kill anyone…Seriously please don't… I sighed and began texting Hannah.

_Hey. The news bout Al is spreading. Can you do something about it?_

_Yeah, of course! But it'll cost you a lv. 50 Eevee and some evolution stones. _

_Uh…sure…_

_K, on it. Don't blame me on anyone's deaths._

Oh boy, maybe that was a bad idea.

"Here's your muffin. I had to fight some Spanish dude over it. Pretty sure he cursed me out 'cuz of it."

I looked over at Alois, whose face was almost completely covered by the gray hood I gave him. He looked rather bad-boyish like that, not that I'm complaining.

"Thanks." I smiled and took the muffin from him. "That was nice…"

Alois nodded and sat back down next to me, lying his head on the table-top. "Erm…I'm still tired…"

"Well today we are going to the Zoo, so splash some cold water in your face and get ready." My mom said, sipping her tea like a distinguished woman.

"Fiiine." Al murmured, bringing his muffin to his lips with one hand and clicking his long nails against the table with the other. I swear, his nails are longer than mine! "…These muffins taste like something Claude would make…Full of flavor…"

I took a bite of my muffin to see if what he said was true and heck yeah it was. I know I shouldn't be going so deep in detail over these muffins, but I must say they were indeed the best part of that hotel. "Wow, you're right! They are pretty good…"

"Alright, we get it." My dad said, a slight smile on his face over how much me and Al were enjoying our cakes in cup form. "Now, in a bit, let's head out. After the zoo we can go to Medieval Times and even Laser Tag if we feel up to it."

Now that sounded like a giant heap of fun. "Fun! Let's get ready, I don't wanna burn too much daylight…although taking some of these muffins would be nice…"

In the end, we ended up not taking the extra muffins with us…

* * *

><p>"Huh…I never knew there were so many kinds of animals in the world…" Alois said as he studied the giant map of the zoo, reading each and every animal's name quietly to himself. "Like ferrets and iguanas…Seriously, were these things around in my time?"<p>

"Uh, yeah. Of course they were!" I said, talking to him but much more focused on the ocelot pacing rapidly in its enclosure; twitching its muscles at every passerby. "I guess Claude just never gave you any animal books back at the mansion."

"I suppose so…" Was that a hint of sadness in his voice? It sure seemed like it… "Oh, look, they have two buildings for specific animals. One just has birds in it, while the other has stuff like lizards and snakes and other man-eating monsters from Hell."

"Sounds dangerous and awesome." I replied, turning my eyes away from the wild-looking cat and back to Alois. "Which one do you want to go in first? I know my mom won't follow us into the reptile house though…"

"That's fine." Al said, tracing one finger across the map, "The Bird House is closer to us, so we can go there and see some exotic birdies. That sounds fun, right?"

I nodded and looked over at my parents, who were busy showing Bella some animal that was out of my sight. "I wonder if they'll let me and you go alone…"

"Of course not." Alois said, rolling his eyes like I was dumb over even thinking they would let us. "That is why you need to close your mouth and follow me."

"W-What…?" I asked, tilting my head in confusion. "Y-You don't mean-"

"Yes, I mean sneak away you goodie-goodie." Al stuck out his tongue and winked. If that's some sort of sign, I don't know what it means. It did make him look like a really cute yet demon-like bad boy. If he died half his hair brown he'd look a lot like Ruki from _The GazettE_…hmm, maybe I'll convince him to do that… "C'mon, we'll go look at the birds and come right back, no sweat!"

"Actually, uh, I don't think that's a good idea…" Of course it's not a good idea! Alois is a wanted criminal and Claude is somewhere on this earth watching us! Nowhere is safe, and deciding to run away from the adults, even for a bit, was out of the question! "Let's just tell them we want to go and then one of them can come with us, simple as that!"

The blonde-hooded boy sneered, "Huh, and you have the nerve to say you know me…I get what I want, you know that. If I can't have it given to me, I get it myself. So come on!"

Before I knew what was happening, off I was dragged by the hand of Alois Trancy. I just went with him, not wanting to get him angry at me anymore.

We reached the Bird House rather quickly. It was a pretty large brick building, and took up a good amount of space. "Well come on! We'll get in trouble if we dilly-dally!"

"Who says dilly-dally still?" Alois questioned, pressing the door open and strolling inside like he owned the place. "I mean, I know times have changed and stuff but-"

"ALOIS TRANCY?!"

Both Al and I froze right in our places. The person who had yelled Al's name was a male, but not too old sounding. He had an English accent, and that was the part that terrified me. However, the most terrifying part was that the sound of this person's voice was a bird's.

"Hey, I'm talking to you, you Young Master Stealer…"

His speech was different. His dialect was a bit coarse. He was also now a bird.

Staring at us with beady little eyes through the bars of his copper cage was Sebastian Michaelis, his entire being that of a crow's.


	9. A New, Improved, Contract

"Uh…Care to explain to us how this all happened…?" I asked in disbelief.

Sebastian hopped from one of the ledges of his cage to the other, getting closer to us. I could tell the way he flapped his wings desperately in an attempt to gain altitude that his flight-feathers had been cut off. He really was trapped… "Why should I?" He responded, his beak opening and closing rapidly, as if to mimic that of a human mouth forming words. "After all, it's all your damned fault I'm like this now."

Alois stuck his tongue out at the crow and spoke in a voice that mimicked a parrots. "Look at me! I'm Sebastian! Gimme a cracker!"

"Al, don't." I said, fearing that even in his bird form Sebastian could still rip out heads off from our shoulders. "I'm just curious, that's all…Maybe I'll even help you out!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What are you talking about?! You realize that bird-man is my enemy right? As in, I can't be friends with him and rescuing him!" Alois yelled, his fists clenched and a big ol' frown on his face. "Leave him in this cage and forget about him for all I care! Let him rot!"

This time it was my turn to get angry. "No! Sebastian has a right to be heard, demon or bird!" I turned my head back to Sebastian, who was giving me an intense stare with his beady little eyes. "Sebastian, please tell me what happened to you. I promise I won't use the information against you. I'll even let you go if you promise to be good, alright?"

Despite Alois's pissed off face and my own intelligence screaming NO, the crow nodded. "Guess I have no choice in the matter…Trancy, block the door and make sure no one comes in for the time being. If anyone saw me saying more than 'hello' the damn news would be all over in a matter of minutes with all your fancy Tweets and Book of Faces."

"Got it." Alois said with a sigh. He then produced to lean against the door, making sure no one could open it from the outside. "Now, let's hear this little explanation of yours…"

Sebastian nodded his little head and began telling us his tale of woe. "Well, after you and Claude disappeared, Young Master no longer had a reason to get revenge, as Ash was dead, and you were good as it. Young Master refused to give up his search for you, and traveled to America in a vain attempt to seek you out. Instead he found the love of his life…"

I rolled my eyes. "Lemme guess…He realized that revenge wasn't the answer and instead stopped his search for Al and I. Thus you were stuck as his butler forever, right?"

Sebastian gave (what looked like a shrug) and continued, "Well, I suppose you could say that. I urged him to carry on with the fruitless search, but after the children he gave it all up."

"Ew." Alois stated, "The thought of Ciel having and then raising kids just creeps me out. Like, did torture them every day or something?"

"No, Young Master was rather proficient with his roles as father of the household. Sure, I had to help a lot, but it wasn't anything too bad." Sebastian said, shaking his head slightly to fix some of his head feathers that were sticking out of place. "Soon, the Young Master's wife, Lady Kiera, began growing suspicious of me. As a result, Young Master ordered me to turn into my animal version of myself, and to hide until he called me out. He even went as far to explain that if he ever did pass away before his part of the contract was finished to go to his children, as he would pass the contract from generation to generation."

"That uh…makes sense…I guess." I said slowly, trying to sort out what the heck he was explaining. "Anyway, keep going. I want to know how you ended up here with clipped wings and a scruffy attitude."

"Oh, yeah…" The crow replied, his voice sounding extremely proud-hurt. "Well, what went down was I wasn't as careful as I should've been and was caught and sold in an auction. Apparently I'm the biggest crow in this stupid nation…Regardless, I was bought by this place and off went my flight-wings. Next thing I know, I'm stuck in this prison cell, with only the dumb parrots in the room next to my golden cage as company."

"That must be awful. Parrots can only repeat things, so your conversations must be more boring than watching white paint dry on a beige backdrop." I stated, beginning to feel really bad for the poor demon. "But, uh, why can't you just use your powers to teleport out?"

Sebastian lowered his head in defeat. His current existence was so depressing it actually made me want to pet him like a cat or something. "Oh, that's Young Master's doing. See, his orders are absolute, and I cannot go against them, no matter what. He has not called me out, nor his any of his children…"

"So basically you're stuck there…?" Alois said, finally joining in on our conversation. "Like a caged bird…haha, that's funny."

"Yes, so hilarious." Sebastian squawked, his tone bitter like an old man who couldn't fit his motorized scooter-thing into the elevator. "So, now that you've heard my story, what will you do? Have I just wasted my breath on you, telling you my tale?"

I thought for a split second, and then quickly placed my hand lightly on the cage's door, which could only be opened by a human hand from the outside. "Sebastian, listen to me very well. I want to make a bargain with you. This little contract of ours will consist of no soul-eating, just so you know. Instead, I'll let you out and I will help you track down Ciel's family. You, on the other hand, will stay with me and Alois until then, helping us keep a low profile and helping Hannah keep the police off our tails. Got it?"

Sebastian's small body shook with anticipation as he listened super intently to my words. "I see…This deal seems fair on both sides…"

"W-Wait, are you not even going to consult me over this!?" Alois stuttered, his face something straight out of an internet meme. "To be completely honest I am rather offended!"

"…That blonde is still as much of a brat as he was two hundred years ago, huh…?"

"More or less." I replied, opening the cage's door and extending my arm into the cage. Sebastian hopped onto it and gently dug his claws into my skin for support. I brought him out, and he stretched out his giant wings as far as they could go. "Now, how are we gonna sneak you out of here…"

* * *

><p>"This is the most degrading idea in the world." I said, fixing my hair to the front of my shoulders.<p>

"Speak for yourself…" Sebastian mumbled, trying his very best to not squirm too much as we exited the bird house. "Let's just get me out of the main park and at the entrance, then we'll be safe…"

Alois walked in front of us, keeping as close as possible. "Yeah…According to the map we still have a bit of a way to go..."

I will leave it up to your imagination what our plan was to sneak Sebastian out…

* * *

><p>Thankfully we got to the entrance rather quickly.<p>

"Okay, get out now…please…" He was a really uncomfortable piece of clothing.

Without being told twice the bird quickly scattered out from under my shirt and landed with a FLOP on the dirt below him. "Alright…well the, tell me where to wait, and I will. So long as you keep your side of the deal that is…"

"I will, I promise…" I said, and then knelt down to lightly pet his head. What? He's a bird right now, it's not weird! "Now go wait by our rental car. It's the green Jeep that has obviously seen much better days."

The crow nodded and skipped off on his way to the path to our car, looking perfectly like a regular dumb crow…that was two inches larger than a regular crow…oh boy.

"I still don't trust that butler…What if he is making it all up to make us feel bad for him! I bet it's that! He's probably really scheming against us and knows exactly where Ciel and Claude are! It's all some big set-up or something." Alois said, his face spelling R-A-G-E. "I refuse to let the person who murdered my brother in the same car as you and me!"

"Al, we've been through this: it was not Sebby, it was Luka himself, with the help of Hannah and the triplets." I rolled my eyes as I had to explain this to him for the thousandth time. I was like a broken record player. "Now, come on! If we don't hurry back, my dad will skin us alive!"

Then (doing something without his consent again), I grabbed his hand and we both high-tailed it back into the deeper reaches of the Zoo. We were both out of breath by the time we got back to where my family was, and you know what? They didn't move at all. They didn't even know we were gone…


End file.
